Alverdiscott is the site of a Roman temporary or marching camp in north Devon, identified through aerial photography of cropmarks rather than upstanding earthworks. Such camps in the South West were typically constructed by troops on campaign as overnight or short-stay defended bivouacs, most plausibly dating to the Claudian–Neronian conquest phase (c. AD 50s–70s) associated with the Second Augustan Legion's operations under Vespasian and subsequent consolidation in Dumnonia.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The camp is significant as part of an emerging picture of Roman military penetration into north Devon, a region long thought to lie beyond meaningful Roman activity west of Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum). Together with the fortlets at Martinhoe and Old Burrow on the coast and recently identified camps elsewhere in the county, it suggests a more sustained military interest in controlling the Dumnonii and possibly monitoring routes toward the Bristol Channel.
The site is known essentially from cropmark evidence showing the characteristic playing-card outline of a Roman camp ditch, and no published excavation results are available to confirm dating or internal features. Without targeted fieldwork, its size, gate arrangement, and precise chronology remain unverified, and the identification rests on morphological parallels with securely identified marching camps.
Alverdiscott is the site of a Roman temporary or marching camp in north Devon, identified through aerial photography of cropmarks rather than upstanding earthworks. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a military camp site from the Roman period in Britain.
Alverdiscott is classified as a Roman military camp — a military site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Churchyard cross 20m south of Romansleigh church (23.9 km), Martinhoe (29.3 km), Broadbury Castle Roman camp (29.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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